There are known laser markers (laser marking apparatuses) for printing onto paper sheets through illumination with a laser beam. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-244692. Moreover, there are known laser marking apparatuses for carrying out marking through illumination with a laser beam at prescribed positions on an illuminated object, using as a reference, an image that is pre-printed on the illuminated object such as, for example, a paper sheet. In this laser marking apparatus, an image that is pre-printed onto an illuminated object 7, prior to marking, is imaged using an imaging portion to specify the position of the image, after which that image position is used as a reference when marking prescribed positions on the illuminated object.
In a typical laser marking apparatus, illustrated in FIG. 7, an imaging portion B40 is disposed on the upstream side, in the conveying direction, of a conveying portion B61 that conveys the illuminated object 7 in the horizontal direction, and further toward the upstream side than an illuminated region 10R that is illuminated by the laser device 10, where the imaging portion B40 captures an image of the illuminated object 7 on the conveying portion B61. In the example illustrated in FIG. 7, the imaging portion B40 is arranged lined up in the vicinity of the laser device 10. This laser marking apparatus has a paper sheet inverting mechanism B63 for flipping the paper sheet so as to carry out laser marking on the front and back faces of the paper sheet. The imaging portion B40 is disposed on the upstream side of the paper sheet inverting mechanism B63.
However, in the laser marking apparatus illustrated in FIG. 7, because, in order to image the illuminated object 7 on the upstream side of the conveying portion B61, the imaging portion B40 is disposed in the vicinity of the laser device 10, the length in the conveying correction is relatively long, causing the footprint of the laser marking apparatus to be relatively large.
In the present invention, the handling of such problems is one example of the problem to be solved. An aspect of the present invention is, for example, to provide a small laser marking apparatus with a simple structure and a small footprint.